


Stranded Indefinitely

by WhaddaScrub



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, amedot - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhaddaScrub/pseuds/WhaddaScrub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot adjusts to Earth after abandoning everything she knows. At least Amethyst is willing to help her from time to time. Emotions are hard for the both of them it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "Feeling Good"

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written a fanfiction. As such I welcome feedback and critiques, but if possible I'd ask that it be directed to my tumblr: http://scrubidot.tumblr.com
> 
> I hope you enjoy it. I look forward to improving my writing as time goes on.

It had been a little over a month since Peridot had come to join forces with the Crystal Gems, and a little under a week since she had become a “traitorous clod” to her Home World. To Peridot though it certainly didn’t feel like that short of a span, it felt as though time stood still. Her complacent bravado had died down. All the Crystal Gems could tell something was wrong but when approached about it Peridot would stare at them as if they were speaking a foreign language.

Now sitting on the top of the temple’s hill Peridot clicked the button of her primitive recording device and began to speak. “Log date 7 29 2, it has been approximately 6 Earth rotations since I’ve called Yellow Diamond a ‘clod’ right to her face.” She paused for a moment. “While I’m still trying to understand the human concept of ‘feelings’ I do understand that my current ‘feeling’ is not a good one. It is similar to the one I had of smallness, yet somehow this is entirely different. I do not know how to fix this. Suggestions have been made by the Pearl and the Permafusion in correcting the problem but I fail to understand what any of it meant. I’m still trying to learn. I want to learn. This emotional status is taking a strange toll on my work on the drill.”

Peridot sighed. “End log.” With the click of the button she sets the device down and looks at the sky’s reflection in the ocean. Perhaps this whole “break” and “feeling good” thing Steven had mentioned a few days back could bring some form of ease on her emotion situation. The view was certainly an interesting one, the reflective properties of the ocean had created a wide spectrum of colors. Yet looking at it didn’t do any good and she certainly didn’t feel any calmer.

Standing up she begins to yell “Augggh! None of this is doing any good!” She kicks her tape recorder sending it to roll briefly down the hill.

“Feel any better?” 

Peridot’s eyes shot up quickly at the sound of the raspy voice. It was Amethyst. What was she doing up here? She quickly attempts to reform her composure to that of a more calm and collected one. Though the look on her face could show she was anything but.

“Uh, I do. In a way.”

“Sometimes you just gotta smash stuff to get the rage out.” Amethyst shrugged as she plopped down next to Peridot. “C’mon sit back down.”

With a huff Peridot complied and sat back down. Amethyst’s hand pats her back lightly. At first her body tensed up at the touch, but fell easy after a few pats. All this non-violent touching was something Peridot still wasn’t accustomed to, but she has been accepting it easier with each day passing.

“So what’s up?”

“Well the stars for one?” Peridot also still maintained difficulties distinguishing whether or not what is meant literally and what is not. She thought maybe this time it was, but it’s better to respond literally than seem a fool later. At least that’s what she thought. 

Amethyst simply snickered. “Man Peri you just never catch on to somethings do yah?”

It took a few moments for her to respond, she felt slightly embarrassed. Her eyes looking down at the ground, unable to make eye contact. “I suppose not. I find Earth’s language system quite confusing and muddled at best with these ‘idioms and metaphors’. Why do they have to make it so complicated? Why can’t things just mean one thing?”

“I dunno. Guess it all just makes sense to me cause I’ve been around it enough.”

A moment of silence passed before Amethyst started up again.

“Look I know stuff’s been bothering you. I know it’s hard to put stuff into words when it comes to feelings too. I can barely do it, but I want you to know I’m here if you need help.”

“Er…Wow thanks?”

Amethyst began to cackle once again, embarrassing Peridot further. “What? I was told that it was polite!”

“Yeah but you don’t gotta add the ‘wow’ everytime you dork. You can just say ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you’.”

“I’ll add that to my notes….Thank you.”

“It’s no problem.”

Peridot’s eyes trailed back to the scenery around her. The ocean, the night sky, and the way the waves lapped against the shore. Her eyes then trailed towards Amethyst. The light of the moon suited her well, it certainly highlighted features on her bodily projection that would otherwise go unnoticed. Just adding Amethyst to the setting seemed to take away a bit of the burdensome emotions Peridot had been stewing on.

“I thought maybe trying a ‘break’ would make me feel good. It seems to work for Steven.” 

“Yeah? Well a change in scenery is pretty nice, and you can’t deny the view but…Sometimes just relaxing isn’t enough to feel good, emotions aren’t that simple.”

“How to deal with feelings is still foreign to me. On Homeworld I didn’t have to think as much. The only thing I had to feel was adoration and respect for Yellow Diamond.” Amethyst simply nodded for her to continue on with the thought. “Now all that I’ve known has been shattered and I too will likely be in time. I no longer know what to think or do. I can’t go back to Homeworld and I feel I’m slowly descending further into madness.”

“Maybe you just are thinking too much about it?”

“I’m a Peridot I’m supposed to think. How else am I supposed to offer a solution if I don’t?”

“Sometimes you just gotta feel, not think.”

“Doing that has made me stranded here indefinitely.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know yet.” Peridot says as she stood up and headed down the hill. Amethyst follows suit taking one last look at the ocean before turning her back to it. “I suppose I’ll find out.”


	2. Subtext

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 4 minutes into Camp Pining Hearts and she gives you the emotional discussion.

It had been two nights since Peridot had talked with Amethyst up on top of the hill, she had been occupying her time with various side projects within the barn since then. A few “chore” and further analyzing the theatrical master piece that was Camp Pining Hearts. She hadn’t noticed before but Pierre and Percy were in complete sync during the three legged race where as the competitors had some struggle keeping it together. Truly Pierre was the prime candidate for Percy’s fusion partner. Claudette? More like Clod-ette.  
The barn itself had developed into Peridot’s place of residence, the bathroom was nice but she wasn’t going to turn down an upgrade in space. Besides, this way she didn’t have to leave when Steven needed to occupy the room and preform his food waste ritual. Which she didn’t mind too much, but sometimes a stench would linger. The barn only smelled like hay and fresh wood thanks to the new roofing, which she found to be enjoyable.

“It’s color wars Claudette doesn’t that mean anything to you.” Peridot droned along with the television as she lay sprawled across the couch. It was just getting to the point where Percy and Claudette were about to lock faces with one another when a knock was heard at the barn door. Peridot looked towards the door for a moment, and contemplated getting it, but decided against it. It’s not like there was a lock to stop anyone. Turning her attention back towards the television she was met with Amethyst’s smiling face. “Hey P-dot!” 

Peridot only screamed in response.

“Oh relax I was just coming to say hey and pass on some news. Here I even brought you something.” She said as she shuffled around the inner workings of her gem. She pulled out a VCR tape and handed it to the green gem. 

“What is it?”

“It’s the next episode of Camp Pining Hearts!”

Peridot gasped in surprise. “Steven said that there weren’t any other episodes!”

“Uhhh, yeah…Well he lied. There’s like at least 100 episodes. But hey! Don’t tell him I brought you one of his tapes! He said something about not wanting to sit through another Percy and Pierre tangent.”

Peridot fought the urge to pop the tape into the player right away. Amethyst said she had some news to pass on and she supposed it’d only be courteous to let her do that much.  
“Steven simply doesn’t understand the complexities and inner workings of the power team that is Percy and Pierre. Now that aside you said something about news?”

“Oh right! The drill! Pearl said that now that we have the coordinates and the drill is near completion she’s estimating that in a week we will be ready to go after the cluster.” She smashed a fist against her hand, as if she was personally crushing the cluster herself. “She just wants to make some final touches and stuff to the drill. Y’know Pearl, always a perfectionist.” 

Peridot had been so caught up in other things she had forgotten about the cluster for a few days. Which was strange since the drill was sitting in front of the barn, she would think that she would think about it much more frequently… 

“Excellent. With the threat of the cluster gone…” She trailed off, a frown kept her lips pursed together. Would she be needed after the cluster was gone? Her usefulness to the Crystal Gems would be expired by then. It’s not like she could fight alongside them in battles she was a Peridot! A technician! Not a fighter!

“Uh Peridot?”

She briefly shook her head as if that would snap her back to reality. “Sorry, my excitement got the best of me.”

“You sure about that? You looked like you were about to die right then and there.”

“I’m just practicing my face for when I see the cluster.” She lied, and she lied terribly.

“Riiiight, okay. Well I ain’t gonna push you for it, you just talk to me if you feel like it.”

Silence then filled the barn, only the occasional gust of the wind whistling through the cracks could be heard. Feeling a bit awkward in the silence Peridot decided to break it.

“Wo—Thank you.” 

“Huh? Oh. You’re welcome. You want me to leave you alone now?”

She simply shook her head. “If you wish to go somewhere else you don’t need my permission. You’re welcome to stay if you would like.”

“Wellllllll. I’d like to see what all the fuss about Camp Pining Hearts is. I remember when it was big a few years back, just never got around to watching it. If you don’t care if I watch it with you that is.”

“O-oh! No of course not! Though to truly experience it you must take in the subtext! So you should really watch the episode I have in the entertainment device now.”

“It’s called a TV y’know.” Amethyst joked. 

“Fine. ‘Tee-vee’.” She said making air quotations. “Just take a seat and take in the information.” She patted the empty cushion next to her.

“Alright sure.” She responded with a shrug, plopping herself next to Peridot. Draping one of her arms around the back of the couch. Something was just so comfortable about putting an arm back there. 

“Now observe.” Peridot said as she fumbled with the remote in an attempt to rewind. The Earth symbols to mark which button did what eluded her. But she had slowly been figuring them out, why one button needed two triangles and one needed a triangle and a line she would never understand.

Finally the show’s opening theme began playing with an upbeat jingle. It was kind of catchy Amethyst noted. Suddenly two teenagers were discussing something about “color wars”, which was apparently a big deal to Percy? She thought it was Percy at least, she’d probably find out later. The episode just started after all.

“Okay now this is a part I don’t understand.” Peridot pointed towards the screen. The two teens on screen were macking face. “I thought it was a fusion method but when I inquired Steven about it, he barely gave me an explanation! Something about his dad and stages of life. It made no sense to me.”

“Ooh boy.” How to explain this? Amethyst had never so much as stepped foot on Homeworld but the things she heard about affection it wasn’t really a thing there. Romance was probably gross and indecent there too.

“Uh well, what they’re doing is called ‘kissing’. It’s what humans do when they express love or a romantic interest in each other. Least that’s what I’ve always thought it was. It’s kind of nice.”

“You’ve participated in this act?” Peridot asked, she was kind of surprised. 

“A few times yeah, mostly on the cheek and forehead. Occasionally on the mouth. You should try it sometime, when you understand stuff better. Aaand when you get better with people touching you, cause people need to touch you if you’re gonna kiss them.” 

“I always feel like I’m going to be shattered or injured when I’m touched!” Peridot raised her voice defensively.

“Hey hey relax relax. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just not used to it y’know? Everyone is so touchy-feely here. I promise you nobody is looking to shatter you though, we’re all friends now.”

“So you aren’t going to shatter me after we deal with the cluster?”

Amethyst’s eyes widened, she genuinely thought she was going to be shattered? “What? No way! Why would we do that?”

“Because I’m a traitor, a traitor to Homeworld at least. Who’s to say you wouldn’t think I’d be a traitor to you…Crystal Gems? It’d only be logical and beneficial to shatter me after my usefulness runs out.”

“No. No. We don’t believe that, nobody is never not useful y’know? If we really thought that way I probably would have been shattered a long time ago. I’m kind of the group mess, in more ways than one.” She laughed at her self-deprecation. Someone had to.

“It’d be a horrible idea for them to shatter you though! You’re a quartz! A real gem! A power house who can level an entire battlefield if you wanted to! You can only benefit the team further when fighting the gem monsters or whatever it is you do.”

“Yeah but like…I mess up. A lot. Like a lot, a lot. I get in the way of both Garnet and Pearl, I’ve put Steven in danger more times than I can count…” She winced at these thoughts, she always tried to push these things into the back of her mind, yet here she was spilling all of this to Peridot of all people.

“But you always find a way to redeem yourself; that much is obvious if you’re still here.”

“Well, I mean maybe. But that’s not really it. It’s just here on Earth, all life is precious. Rose was sure to make sure everyone believed that, Garnet believes it, Pearl believes it, and I know Steven believes it.”

“Do you believe it?”

“Of course I do!” Amethyst blurted a bit louder than intended. She was a bit offended though.

“I’m…Sorry. I’m trying to understand.”

“It’s fine…Ughhhhh. Look bottom line, you’re not going to get shattered. I promise you. We’re here for you Peri. We’re really excited to have you here, at least I am. I’ve never interacted like this with a gem from Homeworld, all the wars and stuff was before my time.”

“Well I certainly don’t want to disappoint you in that regard. Even if I am defective at this point.” 

“If you start thinking for yourself you’re defective? Is that what it means? Not if you’re cracked or corrupted?”

“Cracked gems are instantly shattered if they are found in Homeworld or any of the colonies. No to be defective is to no longer support and give your life for your Diamond.”

“Sounds pretty scary, Homeworld that is. Yellow Diamond didn’t look all that scary, especially after you called her a clod.” Both of them couldn’t help but laugh at the memory.

“I suppose. That was scary for me though. I had never been so scared in my entire life. Crash landing on Earth didn’t nearly draw up enough fear compared to that. I don’t know what got into me, but I felt like there was something about this Earth that was important. What that something is though I’m still figuring out.”

Amethyst just shrugged. “Well when you figure it out, you let me know.” Her eyes drifted back to the TV, which was now rolling the credits for the episode. “Oh, guess we missed the episode.”

“Oh! Well allow me to rewind to where we lost track! I think you’ll like the three-legged race part, at least I like it—“ Peridot blabbered on excitedly about the episode. Amethyst could understand why Steven was reluctant to show her other episodes if she got this worked up over one. Though she was used to it by now, with all the lectures she had gotten from Pearl over the past few thousands of years  
.  
“Yeah yeah sure, rewind it. But you gotta be quiet this time otherwise I won’t get it.”

“I will refrain myself from any commentary.” She promised as she mashed the rewind button.

Amethyst stretched out on the couch and made herself comfortable again. She had a feeling she was going to be watching this for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot longer than the previous one. I feel as though I'm beginning to get a better feel for this type of writing. Any and all feed back is appreciated!


	3. Junk Pile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Within trash there is sometimes treasure.

Amethyst’s eyes were glazed over, her form fighting to keep herself awake as Peridot rewinded the “new” episode of Camp Pining Hearts for the 47th time. One time was fine, two was okay, and three seemed like a bit much after just finishing the episode 2 minutes ago. Fourty seven? Fourty seven was insufferable and Amethyst loved binge watching! 

“Ughhhahhhh!” Amethyst yelled as she swatted the remote out of Peridot’s hands, who looked more offended than annoyed. 

“Amethyst was that really nessecary?” She asked as she bent over to pick up the remote. Amethyst snatched it from her hands as soon as her hand made contact. 

“Peri, pleaaasse. Pleaaase can we watch something else? Something new? This is killing me I like Camp Pining Hearts as much as the next person but I can’t watch it back to back fourty seven times!”

“What else is there?”

“Just c’mon follow me and I’ll show you.”

Peridot complied, hopping off the couch as soon as Amethyst did. The two made way from the barn down to the beach and into the temple, which looked beautiful in the moonlight Peridot noted. She never bothered to actually take a look at it until now. Pushing open the screen door the two sneaked passed Steven who was passed out in his bed snoring away. Tugging at her tank top Amethyst’s gem emitted a brief glow and the temple door opened up in response. Amethyst motioned her hands for Peridot to go in first, who hesitated at first, but had no choice to go in first as she was pushed in. 

Falling to her face Peridot pushed her self back up only to be greeted with small snickers from Amethyst. 

“You didn’t need to shove you know.”

“I know but you were taking too long. I’m sorry, won’t happen again I promise.”

Peridot only grunted as a form of accepting the apology. Taking survey of the room she couldn’t believe her eyes. There was so much junk! Much more junk than what was in the barn! It was like all the Earth’s junk decided to conglomerate in mass at this one location. 

“Isn’t it awesome?” Amethyst said with a proud smile. “I’ve been workin’ on this for hundreds of years!”

“Truly. But why didn’t we use your stuff for the drill? You clearly have more material to draw from.” 

“Nobody asked. Besides where do you think Pearl got her tungsten or whatever?” She said with a shrug. “Anyway c’mon let me show you what we came here for.”

Amethyst led Peridot through a maze of junk piles until they reached the apparent pile they were looking for. It seemed a bit different from the rest, it wasn’t stacked as high and there were actually boxes containing stuff. It was neat and clean.

“When Greg cleaned out his storage shed I said I’d hold onto his stuff for him. Better than paying for a storage shed anyway y’know?” She said setting aside boxes to get to the one at the bottom.

“I’m surprised you can even find things in here. I’d be more lost than I was when I crash landed on Earth.”

“I have a system! Don’t let Pearl tell you otherwise. Anyway here!” She said setting a box into Peridot’s arms. It was full of tapes. 

“Camp Pining Hearts?” She asked hopefully.

“Even better! C’mon I’ve got a TV set up in one of my junk piles.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you had at least 100 TVs set up in your junk piles.”

“Close! Nah, not really. Just 13 all in different corners and models. Something about watching old movies on a really old TV just feels awesome you know?”

“Not really.”

Amethyst lead the way while Peridot toddled behind holding the box full of tapes. She tried her best not to trip over the several hazards littering the ground but it was hard not to since she could barely see her feet. She stumbled at least twice. 

Finally they came to a more leveled out portion in the room, Peridot could barely believe it. It was relatively tidy, even if the junk wasn’t in the best of shape. A couch with a few rips and tears, an end table right in front of and a large tube TV with wires and cords messily hooked up to it. Peridot noticed however the TV power cord was unplugged with no outlet in sight. 

“How do you put power into it?”

Amethyst just shrugged in response before hitting the power button on the remote, to which much to Peridot’s surprise, turned on. “Garnet knows the full details but this temple is like…” She waved her hands around as she tried to gather the correct words. “A living power supply or something. Like we have outlets and stuff for Steven’s stuff cause Pearl thinks keeping things plugged in looks cleaner but we don’t really need them. That’s why the washing machine is outside and works just fine.” 

“Interesting. On Homeworld energy is endless and requires no wiring for power, I was disappointed to find out Earth is not similar in that fact. It’s nice to see you ‘Crystal Gems’ were able to figure out how to get such a thing to work on this planet, especially with such primitive technology and architecture.”

“You’re a nerd, y’know that right?”

Peridot groaned in response, she had figured out what nerd meant (thanks to Steven’s provision of a dictionary) and found it to be…Unfitting for someone of her higher intelligence. However she secretly had grown to find it endearing when Amethyst called her as such. 

“Anyway, let me see that box.” Peridot handed her the box, relieved to have the weight off her arms. It wasn’t too heavy, but holding for so long certainly made her arms sore.  
Amethyst rummaged through the box setting tapes on the coffee table in some sort of order. Peridot could her muttering to herself as she browsed through the contents until coming across what she was looking for. 

“Here we go! Figures it’d be right at the bottom. Take a seat on the couch and prepare to see the greatest entertainment Earth has to offer!”

“You better not be talking this up.” Peridot says as she plops herself on the side of the couch, immediately leaning on the arm. 

“Trust me, you’ll love it. I hope you do at least.” She said popping in the tape.

She scurried onto the couch, sitting herself close to Peridot, who surprisingly didn’t bother to put space between them. The screen lit up with the image of a small child with a mustache, he seemed to be older? But was apparently young. He looked as though he was in servitude to the other humans on the screen. So Earth had Pearl equivalents? Peridot couldn’t quite understand, but decided against putting further thought into it. The theme song was a bit catchy at least.

“Here this is the pilot episode so it’ll be a bit different from the other ones. They don’t even have the dog in this!”

Peridot remained quiet as she watched, her eyes not breaking focus on the screen. 28 minutes passed and Amethyst hit the pause button. “Sooooo..? Whatcha think so far P-dot?”  
“I’m not sure. It clearly doesn’t have as complex of a story line compared to Camp Pining Hearts. Why are they upper status, where is the story? Where is the drama? Is there such a thing as ‘too much money’? Is that a bad thing on Earth? I thought money was a currency that could be exchanged for goods and services so is it a bad thing to run out of good and services? Additionally why is it that --”

Peridot continued to rant for a good several minutes, Amethyst simply waited for her to finish. It was kind of cute how she could rant on and on about a topic without fully understanding it.

“So do you wanna watch another episode or not?”

“Yes.”

Amethyst smiled and hit play. The theme song began to play and Peridot was enraptured by the screen yet again. The episode finished, and Peridot demanded that they watch another one. Another one became 3 more and 3 more became 10 more. Time never felt like it was passing while Lil’ Butler was on. By the time it was time for a break in the binge Peridot had stretched out on the couch rested her head on Amethyst’s lap. It was quite comfortable, like a pillow Peridot had noted.

“Wanna take a small break nerd?”

“Ughghh do we have to?”

“Mmm. No probably not, but man if I didn’t learn last time watching these through is that sometimes it’s good to pay attention to what’s going on around you.”

“I don’t follow.”

Amethyst sighed. “Okay so, a little over a year ago when Greg was cleaning out his storage unit I found these tapes aaaaand of course I said we have to watch them for old times’ sake. So we did! But we got so sucked into the show Greg missed out on stuff with Steven and I just was really selfish and did something stupid and…” She trailed off at the thought.

“And?”

“I said stuff I shouldn’t have. I did stuff I shouldn’t. It was a messy situation.”

“I see. Did the problem get resolved?”

“I don’t really know actually. Greg doesn’t seem too mad anymore and neither does Steven but…The feeling in that moment still stick with me. At least when I see Greg.”  
Peridot didn’t know what to really say. She didn’t understand emotions quite as well still, but it was clear that Amethyst was in some form of distress because of the situation. So she picked herself up and wrapped her arms around Amethyst. A hug, as Steven calls it. Amethyst returns the motion and rests her head on the other gem’s shoulder.

“Thank you Peridot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that ends Chapter 3! A bit slow but I'm working towards some build up. Or at least I'm hoping it seems that way. Feedback and comments are always appreciated!


End file.
